And perhaps the chiefest of all those gifts is that which makes us, the children of God, capable of the adoration of our Father.  Worship is no other than the utter giving of ourselves, giving as Christ gave, “Who being originally in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”; giving as the blessed Virgin gave when she gave, as she must have thought and have been willing to give, her whole reputation among men in response to the call of God; giving complete, in which there is no withholding.  That is worship, sacrifice, the pure gold of self-oblation.

But it is possible to think of the power of worship from another point of view.  God never takes but He gives.  What He appears to take He gives back with His blessing, and we find the restored gift multiplied manifold.  So in the very act of our worship God confers on us power.

For it is true, is it not, that in the very act of worship we experience, not exhaustion but exhilaration.  In the very act of giving ourselves to God, God gives Himself to us, and in overflowing abundance.  That is what we find to be true in our highest act of worship, the blessed Eucharist.  Here God and man meet in a perfect communion.  Here we offer ourselves in sacrifice—­ourselves, our souls and bodies—­in union with the sacrifice of our Lord; and here our Lord, Who is the sacrifice itself, not only offers Himself, but also He imparts Himself to those who are united with Him.  And out of this sacrifice, thus issuing in an act of union, there flows the perpetual renewing of the vitality of the spiritual life.  We are sustained from day to day by this sacrificial feeding; our strength which is continually being drawn upon by the demands of life, by the temptations we have to resist, by the exertion that is called for in all spiritual exercise, is renewed by our participation in the Body and Blood of our Lord.  I am sure that all those who are accustomed to frequent communion feel the drain upon their strength when at any time they are deprived of their great privilege.  I am also sure that many who feel that their spiritual life is but languid, or those other many who seem only dimly to feel that there are spiritual problems to be met, and spiritual strength needed for the meeting of them, would find themselves immensely helped, would find their minds illumined and their strength sustained in more frequent participation in the sacrificial worship and feasting of the Church.  The attitude of vast numbers of those who are regarded as quite sincere Christians is wholly incomprehensible.  The life of God is day by day poured out at the altars of the Church, and they go their way in seeming unconsciousness of its presence, of its appeal, of its virtue, or of their own sore need of it.  The Magi come from a far distance on a hazardous journey into an unknown country that they may offer the gold of their adoration to an infant King; and the Christian feebly considers whether he is not too tired to get up of a morning and go a short distance to receive the Body and Blood of the Redeemer of his soul!